Heidi13

A sales pitch may be the norm on mega ships, but on our preferred small ship cruise line there is no sales pitch anywhere, even in the spa. Stopped in, got my haircut and had a pleasant chat with the young lady. Zero sales pitch.

It's tough to provide specific times, as the ships must set a speed for slack water at Seymour Narrows. Normally the scenic cruising south of Alert Bay starts early afternoon. If you want spa time, book it early in the morning and be prepared to be out on deck from about 12:00 - 13:00 for entering Queen Charlotte Strait. That will then provide you an estimate when they reach the narrow channels starting about Alert Bay/Blackfish Sound.

Mr Bembridge bills himself as a "Cruise Expert", but I found that his podcast provided a standard of reporting well below what I would consider as expert reporting and/or opinions. Personally, I also didn't agree with his generalisations during the initial 4 or 5 minutes and found lots of inaccuracies. If he is a "Cruise Expert", I expect he would thoroughly research what Viking Ocean provides and then report on each aspect, and how well they achieve the published standard. Although he didn't openly compare the Viking Cruise to mega ships, with a gazillion pax, casinos, annoying photogs, wacky pool games, marriage games, etc. the insinuation was most definitely present. Decor - get again, Viking clearly publish their ships are a clean, modern Scandinavian design, which he should have known prior to the cruise. I see no point in comparing the decor to the rich panelling and stuffy opulence of luxury ships and the older British liners. Those are standards I grew up with, but now enjoy the Viking decor. Most refreshing. Shore-ex - his statement that all pax follow along on the "Included" shore-ex like a bunch of sheep is certainly not my experience, except possibly in Nuku Hiva, when the self-exploring ashore was the only shore-ex. Between Viking optional shore-ex, private tours and independent exploration, in our experience less than 50% of pax take the "Included" shore-ex. However, where the "Included" shore-ex is the best tour, that number increases significantly. I note, he only made this comment in 1 of the ports, so if it didn't occur in the other ports, why mention it as an issue. Price - Clearly luxury/premium cruises cost more per day than the mainstream mega ships. His comments were based on a mega ship pax, not your average luxury/premium line pax. From personal experience, while our 2020 Viking Cruise was almost twice the cost of a 2015 Princess equivalent, the final per diem cost was virtually identical, with the Viking standards vastly superior. In summary, a very poor report of a cruise that came from a person that I believe had pre-conceived ideas about the cruise, based on mega ship cruising. His sensationalised personal take was neither well informed or completely accurate. My initial take from the first few minutes is that Viking pax are a bunch of sheep following along with the program - couldn't be further from the truth.